Investigative pathways

Sample

Samuel A. Safran

Understanding the structural and thermodynamic properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes is important for both fundamental and practical reasons. Complex fluids and solids, important in the development of new materials, cannot be designed using trial and error methods due to the multiplicity of components and parameters. While these materials can sometimes be analyzed in terms of microscopic mixtures, it is often conceptually simpler to regard them as dispersions and to focus on the properties of the internal interfaces found in these systems. The basic physics centers on the properties of quasi-two-dimensional systems embedded in the three-dimensional world, thus exhibiting phenomena which do not exist in bulk materials. . This approach is the basis behind the theoretical presentation of Statistical Thermodynamics of Surfaces, Interfaces, and Membranes. Focusing on the large-scale properties of these systems, these notes are meant to supplement the usual treatments in books on colloid and interface science. The approach adapted here first presents the traditional approach and then investigates how thermal fluctuations affect the simple description of the system. This philosophy is used throughout to treat the rich diversity of phenomena investigated in the field of colloid and interface science such as interfacial tension, the roughening transition, wetting, interactions between surfaces, membrane elasticity, and self-assembly. The presentation is that of a set of lecture notes (used in graduate courses taught by the author) including worked examples and further problems. This book is aimed at physicists, physical chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists who are interested in the statistical mechanics that underlie the macroscopic, thermodynamic properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes. While the primary focus of the book is on the systems important in colloid and interface science, a more general goal is to introduce the reader to several theoretical methods that are useful in applications of statistical mechanics to materials. It is thus the hope that the depth and breadth of coverage will introduce the condensed matter physicist to colloid science and present to the physical chemist or materials scientist, who may already be familiar with the underlying phenomena, a modern theoretical perspective.

Sample

Donald Armstrong

Essential in biological functions like cell signaling and, when disturbed, a likely cause of disease, lipids have proven to be a vital force in cell biology. In Lipidomics: Methods and Protocols, an international panel of experts present a wide variety of reviewed as well as unpublished data on isolation techniques, structural analysis, lipid rafts, lipid trafficking and profiling, biomarkers, lipid peroxidation, biostatistics applied to lipids, software tools, and bioinformatics. These studies range from simple systems, such as in yeast, to complex biological models. Samples used in these studies include: mitochondria, microsomes, endosomal membranes, RBS and plasma membranes, vesicles, caveolae, liposomes, macrophages, meibum, brain, microglia, retina, adipose tissue, keratinocytes, pulmonary surfactant, and hepatic cultures. Volume 2 focuses on oxidized lipids, trafficking and profiling, software, bioinformatics, and biostatistics. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology"!series format, the chapters include useful introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary equipment and materials, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and authoritative notes on troubleshooting and avoiding common pitfalls. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Lipidomics: Methods and Protocols will support researchers who wish to increase their utilization of lipidomics, which will certainly lead to more powerful technology, improved diagnostic-prognostic capabilities, and the identification of new valuable products

Sample

David Bowers, Allan House, David Owens

In this book the authors introduce health research to junior doctors, nurses, therapists, health educators, and allied health professionals with little or no research experience, leading them through the process of study design, data collection and analysis, writing up results, and submission for publication, and covering both quantitative and qualitative projects.

Sample

Xinyuan Wu, Xiong You, Bin Wang

Structure-Preserving Algorithms for Oscillatory Differential Equations describes a large number of highly effective and efficient structure-preserving algorithms for second-order oscillatory differential equations by using theoretical analysis and numerical validation. Structure-preserving algorithms for differential equations, especially for oscillatory differential equations, play an important role in the accurate simulation of oscillatory problems in applied sciences and engineering. The book discusses novel advances in the ARKN, ERKN, two-step ERKN, Falkner-type and energy-preserving methods, etc. for oscillatory differential equations.The work is intended for scientists, engineers, teachers and students who are interested in structure-preserving algorithms for differential equations. Xinyuan Wu is a professor at Nanjing University; Xiong You is an associate professor at Nanjing Agricultural University; Bin Wang is a joint Ph.D student of Nanjing University and University of Cambridge.